The Holy Grail - Part 1

Dear Reader,

When I commenced writing my blog, I expressed as one of my interests as Jerusalem, and religious studies.  The subject of the Holy Grail and what had been written about that subject to date falls squarely within the subjects of my interest.  This blog post is devoted to the Christian world interest in and the enigma of the Holy Grail and it will be the first part of series of blogs on that interest and enigma that I will write in due course.

Historically, the Holy Grail had been associated with a cup, a bowl, a container for the blood of Christ that spilled after the Roman Captain Longinus stabbed Christ with his lance on the cross, a bowl from which Christ and all twelve disciples drank at the last supper, a meteorite set at the exterior wall of Kaaba in Mecca, the Shroud of Turin, and in recent time as suggested by Dan Brown in The Da Vinci Code that the blood in the grail refers to the physical descendant of Christ that may be still be living in the present day.
 In future blog posts, I will write about what eminent dramatist, folkloric tales, and books had been written about the Holy Grail since the return of some of the crusaders back to Europe from the second crusade 1150 onwards. I will commence this post with a brief exploration of the parameters which in future posts sets the boundaries of the interest and the enigma of the Holy Grail.

During mass in all Christian churches regardless of denomination, prayers are said by the priest – ‘Take, eat; this is my body which is broken for you for the forgiveness of sins – Drink from this, all of you; this is my blood of the New Covenant, which is shed for you and for many, for the forgiveness of sins. The priest then asks and implores the Holy Spirit to make the bread the precious Body of Christ and the wine in the chalice the Blood of Christ.  When a parishioner takes communion he or she expects that he is eating the body and blood of Christ and his or her sins which are committed up to that point in time to be forgiven.

Blood - Dracula's Thirst

To this day blood is considered the essence or the vehicle of life.  Historically blood was associated with magical power and food for the likes of Dracula, and supernatural spirits.  There are number of non Christian religions that hold annual festival in which participants undertake self flagellation and she blood in reverence. A typical example is the Holy Ashura festival for the Shia faithful.

The Holy Ashura Festival

In 305 AD the bishop of Benevento Januarius was beheaded under Emperor Diocletian. To this day the Catholic Church hold annual feast day in memory of that occasion.  Two vials containing what is said to be the  blood of now saint Januarius are brought near the head of the saint at a Naples Cathedral. After a time the blood becomes liquid again. This miracle is said to confirm eternal life.  According to Saint Bernard of Clairvaux one drop of Christ, the Savior's blood was sufficient to redeem the whole world.

The Holy Grail, if indeed it did physically exist - its whereabout today, how it got there, and what secrets, if any, are kept deliberately or otherwise by those in the know from the faithful. This is what I will explore in future posts that I will write on that subject. Meantime dear reader keep in mind the name   Joseph of Arimathea. Those of you who are familiar with the Bible will be familiar with  Joseph of Arimathea who sought Pilate permission to take the dead Christ off the cross and bury Him in a grave that he prepared for himself.